Surprise gift of $500,000 for the arts

Philanthropist Sir Eion Edgar has announced that his family is donating $500,000 to the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. His surprise announcement was made last night on the occasion of the Arts Foundation's AGM and his retirement as a Trustee. 

Sir Eion said: "I believe that the arts are a vital part and integral part of our society. I also believe strongly in the vision of the Arts Foundation, which is to encourage private patronage for the arts and to celebrate and support our hard working artists."

Turner Prize to leave Britain in 2013

The Tate Britain, the founder and customary host of the Turner Prize, has announced that the 2013 prize exhibition will be held in the Northern Irish city of Derry, a city perhaps most familiar as a symbol of political strife, having been the site of the 1972 "Bloody Sunday" massacre. The decision to move the Turner Prize is an attempt by the Tate Britain to "attract new audiences around the country and bring the prize to a wider and more diverse audience outside the capital.

Image: The town of Derry, Northern Ireland

Living Room 2011: Metropolis Dreaming

Andrew Clifford will curate the next Living Room project, which will take place in Auckland's CBD from 8 - 17 April 2011. 

Taking a lead from the Futurists, METROPOLIS DREAMING will explore the imaginative possibilities of the city. Clifford says: "The dynamism of sound and light were important phenomena for the futurists and it is in this audio-visual terrain that METROPOLIS DREAMING will predominantly take place - a perfect genre for temporary and ephemeral projects. This will be a mix of installations, performances, video projects, activities and a poster project. Acknowledging that the city is both a cultural and technological hub, there will also be social projects that bring a new, contemporary angle to these ideas."

Artists confirmed so far for Living Room 2011 are: Ujino Muneteru (Japan), Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Korea/USA) Sam Hamilton (NZ) with John Reynolds (NZ), Gregory Bennett (NZ) with Mike Hodgson (NZ) and Ani O'Neill (NZ/Rarotonga). Contributing to the poster project are Sara Hughes (NZ), Peter Madden (NZ), Ruban Nielson (NZ/USA) and David Shrigley (UK).

Andrew Clifford is the curator at the Gus Fisher Gallery, which is part of Auckland University's National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries.

Image: John Reynolds, Small Magnetic Cloud (2001) , vinyl on aluminium

Review of Jim Speers' Numerology and Territories show

This link takes you to a review of Jim Speers' exhibition Numerology and Territories at Te Tuhi Centre for Contemporary Arts. The exhibition runs to 5 December 2010.

Image: Jim Speers, VeilSide (2010), laser cut steel, 27 x 6 x 9.5cm

Celebrating the launch of Martin Basher's new work in NYC

We are hosting a function tonight (from 6.00pm) to celebrate the launch of Martin Basher's artwork in the Public Art Fund exhibition Total Recall, which features five large-scale sculptural commissions. We will also be screening installation views of the work in situ at the MetroTech Plaza in Brooklyn.

Image: Martin Basher's Minimal Consumption/Reflective Sublime/Aspirational Sunset Art, MetroTech Plaza, NYC

Billy Apple's 48th Birthday

In 1962 the artist who was known then as Barrie Bates changed his name and appearance (with the aid of Lady Clairol Instant Creme Whip) becoming Billy Apple in a self-conscious art action that doubled as a canny exercise in re-branding. Billy Apple celebrates his 48th birthday today shortly after returning from a trip to London to be present at his exhibition Billy Apple: The British and American Works 1960 - 69 at The Mayor Gallery.

Image: Billy Apple bleaching with Lady Clairol Instant Creme Whip November 1962

Former art dealer and seasoned curator to co-curate 2012 Whitney Biennial

Following on from Jeffrey Deitch's appointment as the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles comes the news that the Whitney Museum of American Art Art has appointed Jay Sanders as a co-curator of its 2012 biennial, acknowledging that he has recently worked as a director of the Chelsea gallery Green Naftali. Sanders has been teamed up with seasoned Whitney curator Elisabeth Sussman. This link takes you to the Whitney Museum's Biennial release.

Image: Whitney Museum of American Art

The auction as self-portrait

This month Phillips de Pury & Company launched a new kind of contemporary art auction, one in which a single major player in the art market was invited to create the sale of his dreams. The player was Philippe Segalot, an art consultant and private dealer who persuaded sellers to consign 33 works to the "Carte Blanche" auction, a title The Economist says "is a reminder of the art market's lack of regulation".

Segalot says: "I have always been interested in the concept of curated sales, where the artworks are selected not for their market value but for their artistic quality, historical importance and coherence within the group. Here I tried to push the idea further by bringing together a small collection of my favourite works by my favourite artists. The result is a true self-portrait, a close representation of my life as an art lover, an art collector and an art advisor."

The auction was certainly distinctive. The Economist reports that on a number of lots Segalot was seen to be bidding against his assistant and his business partner, all of whom would have been representing collectors. Asked whether acting for buyers as well as sellers on the same lot might constitute a conflict of interest, Segalot insisted it was not a problem.

Financial guarantees were also back in the mix with 7 of the lots in "Carte Blanche" being secured by irrevocable bids from anonymous third party investors. This practice, which was widespread before the global financial crisis, ensures that works sell for a minimum price with the investor taking a larger cut of the price if it exceeds the guarantee.

The so-called ground-breaking "Carte Blanche" series will continue with other sales to be curated by artists, collectors, curators or gallery owners. You can read The Economist article here and another on Segalot's favourite works here.

Image: Thomas Schutte's Grosse Geist No. 16 (2000), one of the lots in the "Carte Blanche" auction

An unusual partnership between Christie's and an affiliate of China's Ministry of Culture

Recently Christie's invited collectors, scholars and art patrons to its New York headquarters in the Rockefeller Centre for what it described as a special exhibition and symposium about the rise of Chinese contemporary art. However, as the NYT reports, the 29 works in the show were not produced by the politically focused Chinese artists who had helped Christie's earn millions of dollars at auction over the past five years. They were mostly by a group of realist painters whose work had been ignored by collectors and curators outside the country, and they were selected by a Chinese government-appointed panel.

The show, Trans-Realism, is part of a partnership between Christie's and an affiliate of China's Ministry of Culture which began just a year after the Chinese Government denounced Christie's for trying to sell two Qing dynasty bronzes that Beijing insisted were looted from the country 150 years ago. As part of the partnership, Christie's is considering financing a series of exhibitions with Chinese institutions like the Ministry of Culture's Centre of International Cultural Exchange.

Christie's art diplomacy is drawing criticism on the grounds that moves to promote artists selected by the Chinese government would alter the the role of the auction house and undermine its credibility with collectors. Others believe that Christie's has bowed to pressure from a government that often tries to silence critics and politically focused artists. But none of this is likely to deter Christie's as it moves to gain entry to China's booming auction market, which the Beijing-based group Artron says has grown to from $1.1 billion in 2004 to about $3.2 billion in 2008.

Image: the two disputed Chinese Qing dynasty bronzes

Upstairs at Starkwhite

Image: Matt Henry, Signal Yellow from the series 16:9 (2011), acrylic on linen, frame, acrylic glazing, 618 x 1001 x 69mm

Review of Martin Basher's exhibition STATES OF PEACE AND CALM W. PERSONAL TOUCH

This link takes you to a review of Martin Basher's current exhibition STATES OF PEACE AND CALM W. PERSONAL TOUCH which runs at Starkwhite until 27 November 2010.

Image: Installations views of Martin Basher's exhibition STATES OF PEACE AND CALM W. PERSONAL TOUCH + EASY ORDERING, Starkwhite, Auckland NZ, 2010

A weekend of art from the studios of this year's Elam graduates

Featuring work by more than 120 graduating students, the annual Elam show runs from Saturday 20 to Sunday 21 November 2010, from 10.00am to 5.00pm. This link takes you to a map of the exhibition venues.

Rosanna Albertini's hand-made book NEW ZEALAND WITH AN ITALIAN ACCENT - on the wings of artists - will be launched on Saturday 20 November 2010 from 5.00 - 7.00pm in Christopher Wilde's solo exhibition at Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica. You can order a copy of the limited edition book (made in 100 numbered copies) at rosanna@albertini.ws

Image: cover image and binding conceived by Christopher Wilde

Leigh Davis Flag Poems in Time, Text & Echoes

The images above are of Leigh Davis flag poems presented in the JAR exhibition Time, Text & Echoes, a 300-day project of 30 poem flags presented one at a time in a sequence of ten-day hoists. The exhibition runs to March 2011. 

Images: Leigh Davis flag poems presented in the JAR exhibition Time, Text & Echoes (2010 - 2011), New North Road, Kingsland, NZ. From the top: Consider Rosellas, Pacific's Disturbed, Speed Descends, all works dyed polyester knit appliqued onto dyed woven bunting, with canvas head, sisal halyard and brass clips, 1.5 x 3.5m

SCREENS online gallery for art interactives

SCREENS is a new online gallery for art interactives created and curated by Luke Munn and Jeff Nusz. Modeled on the practice of art galleries and taking advantage of digital distribution, SCREENS promotes this emerging art form by "commissioning new work, displaying it in a professional way, engaging a broad audience and fostering critical discussion." 

Seung Yul Oh opens the SCREENS online series with Rain.

Image: SCREENS promotional image for Seung Yul Oh's Rain, 2010

Upstairs at Starkwhite

Image: Layla Rudneva-Mckay, Blue (2009), C-type photograph, 470 x 470mm, starkwhite@starkwhite.co.nz

Layla Rudneva-Mackay floor talk at Artspace

Layla Rudneva-Mackay discusses her work in the exhibition A Rock That Was Taught it Was A Bird at Artspace today at 3.00pm.

Image: Layla Rudneva-Mackay, Taking a moment to lose himself, when found most unexpectedly squashed between a mattress and its base, 2006-2007, C-type print, installation view, Artspace, Auckland, NZ.

Installation views of Martin Basher's sculpture for the Public Art Fund, NYC

Martin Basher's three large-scale mirrored vitrines appear reflective and slightly translucent by day, revealing their contents only at night. Lit from within and stocked with both high- and low-end consumer products, fabricated structures, and hand-made paintings, the cubes begin to mimic retail spaces where strange paintings hypothesize a future satisfied by consumer desires. Blending together ideas of retail display, advertising and Modernism, Basher's work questions the environmental and social implications of consumption in our times. From the Public Art Fund website

Minimal Consumption/Reflective Sublime/Aspirational Sunset Art can be viewed at Brooklyn's MetroTech Plaza in the Public Art Fund exhibition TOTAL RECALL.

Image: installation views of Martin Basher's public art work Minimal Consumption/Reflective Sublime/Aspirational Sunset Art, commissioned by the Public Art Fund, NYC for the exhibition TOTAL RECALL at the MetroTech Plaza, downtown Brooklyn

What's the secret?

RCA secret is an annual contemporary art exhibition and sale of around 2,500 post-card sized artworks made and donated by artists, designers and illustrators, plus up-and-coming-students and alumni from the Royal College of Art. The cards are all sold to the public, with every postcard costing £45, regardless of whether it has been made by a famous name or a young student.

This year's exhibition takes place on 12 & 14-20 November and includes contributions from John Baldessari, Sir Anthony Caro, Jake Chapman, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Yinka Shonibare and Franz West. You can view the postcards on-line at the RCA Secret website.

What's the secret? Each postcard is exhibited anonymously and is signed on the back so collectors don't know the identity of the artist until they have made their purchase. To date sales of postcards have raised over £1 million, all going to the Royal College of Art Student Award Fund.

Winning entry for the Frieze Writer's Prize 2010

Frieze has announced Erica Cooke as the winner of this year's Frieze Writer's Prize. She receives two thousand pounds and has been commissioned to write her first review for frieze magazine, to be published in the January/February issue. The judges for 2010 were writer and novelist A.M. Homes, philosopher and critic Boris Groys, along with frieze co-editor Jorg Heiser. You can read Cooke's prize-winning review here.